Dear MR. Kotter.

Dear MR. Kotter, My son Juan Epstein will not be in school tomorrow, he's dead. Signed, Epstein's mother

Robert Hegyes, who played Juan Epstein on '70s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter, died Thursday, the New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. Hegyes, who died of an apparent heart attack after suffering chest pains at his Metuchen, New Jersey home, was 60.

Hegyes had not been in good health for the past two years, his brother Mark Hegyes told the paper. The actor had suffered a previous heart attack in recent years.

Police responded to an emergency call from Hegyes' home at approximately 9 a.m. He was transported to JFK Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey, but at that point he had gone into full cardiac arrest.

Though Hegyes also starred on the detective series "Cagney & Lacey" (as Det. Manny Esposito) and, in later years, guest-starred on shows such as "NewsRadio" and "Diagnosis Murder," Hegyes was best-known for his role as Juan Epstein -- full name: Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein -- on the 1970s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" from 1975 to 1979. Perpetually scheming and always ready with a self-written note signed "Epstein's Mother" to explain his school absences, Epstein stood out among a group of characters that included the super-cocky womanizer Vinnie Barabarino (played by a young John Travolta) and hip but beleaguered high-school teacher Gabe Kotter (played by Gabe Kaplan).

Hegyes' last listed acting role on IMDB is in the film "Hip, Edgy, Sexy, Cool" in 2002.

He leaves behind a two children, Cassie and Mack, and two step-children, Sophia and Alex.

horshack was sick last year..."mr Kot-taire"..."horshack is a very old and respected name. it means 'the cattle are dying'"

one of my best friends worked near his home at Cohasset South Shore Music Circus (a chowd Westbury Music Fair) and met a bunch of stars old n new in that era. said kaplan was a mean sob back then also Florence Henderson was a beeotch tooo. He was there when T. Orlando cracked up on stage

one of my best friends worked near his home at Cohasset South Shore Music Circus (a chowd Westbury Music Fair) and met a bunch of stars old n new in that era. said kaplan was a mean sob back then also Florence Henderson was a beeotch tooo. He was there when T. Orlando cracked up on stage

Seriously, it was a well known incident - too much Bolivian marching powder. Stopped the music mid-show, mumbled stuff, etc

During a performance in Cohasset, Massachusetts, Orlando announced from the stage to a stunned audience and an even more stunned Dawn that he was retiring from show business immediately. He had worked himself to exhaustion, had developed some drug problems, and was suffering from the deaths of both his sister and his good friend Freddie Prinze. He had a nervous breakdown and admitted himself to a psychiatric ward in New York where he stayed for six months.

For many of us, we were the age demographic for this show. With only a few channels on the tv back in the day, we almost all watched certain shows of. It was a shared experience that we carry throughout our lives. Not sure that in today's technological age it's quite the same.